FUND(S):

Road Fund

Sources of Revenue:

Special Fund

Legislation creates:

Neither Program nor Fund

Fiscal Note Summary

Effect this measure will have on costs and revenues of state government.

The West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles’ (WVDMV) database operates with mainframe technology and is configured to index the Social Security Number (SSN) as the key data field. This meets all federal regulations as supported by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, which is the regulatory oversight body for all motor vehicle agencies. Data entry and data storage cannot be accomplished without the use of the Social Security Number as the key field.

The WVDMV has entered into a contract with the Social Security Administration that requires online SSN verification for each driver’s license or identification card. Also, this could affect the federally-mandated requirements for West Virginia Division of Health and Human Resources (WVDHHR) programs such as “Deadbeat Dads”. Since this legislative exemption is statewide, there are many who may wish to take advantage of this opportunity to evade the “Deadbeat Dad” legislation which uses the SSN and others who may not wish to be identified for a variety of reasons. This may also impact other agencies that rely on the SSN for administration of their constitutional requirements. While this seems like a government control issue, identity verification has been demanded by the general public in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 tragedy.

Also, at issue with this legislation is the potential loss of $2,963,868 of federal grant money provided to pay for the construction and installation of the Real ID processing. Non-compliance with Real ID may require the repayment of received funds and cancellation of future funds, causing a reduction of Road Fund monies and a significant change in current budget projections.

From a cost perspective, in addition to the potential loss of federal grant funds, it appears that a separate system would need to be developed with separate storage that could not be shared, which is in direct conflict with many current enforcement agreements. Our current driver’s license vendor, MIDS (Marquis ID Systems), has estimated the potential cost of a complete additional system to be used to satisfy this legislation may cost as much as $4.2 million. This would also satisfy the citizen proximity requirements of the legislation.